Hundreds stage pillow fight in central London

On International Pillow Fight Day, hundreds flocked to Trafalgar Square in central London to bop one another over the head.

International Pillow Fight Day started in 2008Photo: JULIAN SIMMONDS

By Adam Lusher

8:20PM BST 02 Apr 2011

Tom Nizio had come equipped for a fight – with starry pyjama trousers on his legs and a pillow in his rucksack.

"I love this kind of fun," said Mr Nizio, 29, from Acton, west London, surveying the gathering crowd in Trafalgar Square yesterday. "I heard about it on Facebook, and just thought, I've got to have some of this."

He released the pillow from his rucksack and set off on his rollerblades. It was about to begin – the novelty addition to the London season, International Pillow Fight Day.

Organised – sort of – in cities around the world, International Pillow Fight Day can best be described as a global gathering of those who have yet to grow out of pillow fights, with a bit of charity fund-raising on the side.

It is the brainchild of Kevin Bracken and Lori Kufner, who, in 2005 while students at Toronto University in Canada, founded the art group Newmindspace.

International Pillow Fight Day started in 2008, but pillow fighting has always been part of Bracken and Kufner's oeuvre. Indeed, judging by their online "how-to" guide, it can change the world.

"This is a building block of our goal to spread free event culture to every corner of the world.

"Imagine that anywhere on the face of the Earth, there may some day be free, fun, massive public events like pillow fights and interactive art installations on every day of the year.

"Imagine that in the future, we will be united by our drive to live free, fun public lives! That is the era we dream of."

None of which seemed to put anyone off. They had come to Trafalgar Square in their hundreds, in fluffy slippers, dressing gowns, skintight jumpsuits, elephant outfits and other liberal interpretations of the pyjama dress code.

Some had no sensible reason to be here.

"There's not much thought gone into it," said Fredrika Drake, 25, a waitress from Camden, north London. "I just thought – awesome! Fun!"

On the section of the International Pillow Fight Day's website inviting each city's organisers to identify who was hosting their event, the Londoners had simply entered: "We all are."

It fitted the philosophy of the movement's founders, which may appeal to anyone trying to cut through red tape to organise a Royal Wedding street party.

"Never ask permission," Bracken and Kufner have written. "It is very unlikely anybody will say yes. The permit culture we citizens witness in city halls around the world is perhaps the single largest barrier to experiencing the full richness of public life in the cities we live in. Public assembly is a human right."

And money from the £5 "whack n' keep" souvenir pillows was going to raise funds for aid to the tsunami-struck areas of Japan.

Similar scenes were being re-enacted yesterday in about 130 locations, from Adelaide, Australia, to Zurich, Switzerland - via Chisinau, Moldova; Caracas, Venezuela; and Seoul, South Korea.

As for Tom the rollerblading builder, he was last seen charging into the melee offering the closest that anyone came to tactical insight.

"I'm just going to go in and hit anyone who comes in my way."

He vanished into in a cloud of feathers, pillows and pyjamas – the fog of pillow combat.